Requirements, Design, and Development of a Rapidly Reconfigurable, Photo-Realistic, Virtual Cockpit Prototype

The United States Air Force uses aircraft flight simulators for pilot training and mission rehearsal. They use a variety of simulators for this task ranging with prices ranging from $400,000 to$30,000,000. These simulators have specialized hardware that restricts reuse of their components and increases maintenance costs. Air Education and Training Command wants to reduce simulators cost and improve availability to the operational commands by supporting research in virtual reality flight simulators. This thesis looks at the development of a reconfigurable virtual cockpit in a distributed virtual environment that can be used for different aircraft as well as training scenarios. The thesis effort builds on a F-15 virtual cockpit previously developed at AFIT by creating a F-16. The Rapidly Reconfigurable Virtual Cockpit (RRVC) allows users to switch between an F-15 and F-16 during live simulation. All software models and aircraft geometry files are updated to reflect the current aircraft. The ability of a distributed virtual environment to support two unique aircraft flight simulators in a single application is encouraging. With the development of more aircraft, a single application can be provided to the operational pilot community that would support many aircraft at a fraction of the cost of today\u27s flight simulators

Core Work Evaluation: The Viability of a Higher-order Work Attitude Construct

A great deal of research examining work attitudes has shown that they are related to important employee behaviors. Most of this research has parsed attitudes into ever more refined assessments of specific features of the work environment. Although this research has yielded valuable insights, for practical, theoretical, and empirical reasons we argue that an examination of a more global evaluative summary of the work environment is needed. In the present study we develop, conceptualize, and provide empirical evidence for a global work attitude construct called Core Work Evaluation (CWE). The conceptual foundation for CWE is drawn from classic and modern theory on attitudes and attitude formation. To test our theoretical assertions we follow recent recommendations for the development of higher order constructs in a series of three empirical studies. The results found that CWE: (1) explains meaningful shared variance across the more specific indicators (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and work engagement) that is not merely the result of common method variance, (2) is distinguishable from nonevaluative features of the work environment and stable individual differences, and (3) predicts important work-related outcomes above and beyond its constituent indicators. Overall the results provided evidence of the viability of the CWE construct

“Dirty” Workplace Politics and Well-Being: The Role of Gender

We build and empirically test an integrative model of gender, workplace politics, and stress by integrating social role theory and prescriptive gender stereotypes with the transactional theory of stress. To examine the effect of gender on the relation between exposure to non-sanctioned political influence tactics (NPITs; e.g., self-serving and socially undesirable behaviors such as manipulation and intimidation) and stress outcomes, we employed a daily diary design with 64 employed adults over the course of 12 working days. In support of our hypotheses, exposure to NPITs––that is, “dirty politics”––elicited a threat appraisal that, in turn, related to the activation of negative emotions. Moreover, unlike men, women who reported higher levels of NPITs experienced heightened levels of threat appraisal and ultimately negative emotions. We demonstrate that pairing social role theory with the transactional theory of stress is a useful approach for researchers interested in better understanding gender differences in the occupational stress process. Anyone interested in reducing stress in the workplace is encouraged not only to reduce the occurrence of NPITs, but also to consider ways to reduce the threat associated with them, especially for women

Understanding Divertor Detachment through CRETIN Modeling - a Work in Progress

From numerous studies aimed at reducing the divertor target plate incident heat flux or understanding divertor detachment, an abundance of evidence supporting the importance of atomic processes in tokamak plasmas now exists. Through use of a multi-dimensional Non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (NLTE) simulation code named CRETIN [1] this repor

Effects of Supplementing Lactating, June-calving Cows on Second-calf Pregnancy Rates

A two year experiment evaluated the influence of supplementation pre-breeding on second-calf pregnancy rates in June-calving heifers. For 60 days before start of the breeding season, heifers were assigned to one of two treatments: supplementation of dried distillers grains (1.5 lb/day) to meet energy and metabolizable protein requirements or unsupplemented control. Supplementation improved body condition score during the supplementation period and resulted in increased body condition score at weaning. In year 1, feeding supplement to the dam did not change calf weight gain but feeding supplement increased calf weight in year 2. Pregnancy rates were 90% and not changed by supplementation

Scent marking by male caribou: an experimental test of rubbing behavior

We studied scent marking by adult male caribou (Rangifer tarandus) during rut in September 1998 at the Large Animal Research Station in Fairbanks, Alaska, USA. We used an experimental approach involving two captive groups of two males each to test for effects of social status, tree size, texture, and scent on rubbing behavior by caribou. Dominant males did not rub more often or for a longer duration than subordinates. Caribou rubbed trees with smaller diameters more often than large-diameter trees. Males preferred trees with bark for rubbing to those trees with their bark removed prior to the experiment. Caribou exhibited no preference for posts with pine-oil applied compared with posts without that aromatic scent. We hypothesize that rubbing of trees by male caribou is related to synchronization or priming of estrus in females, but more research is needed to test that potential function of scent marking

Urinary Allantoin as an Estimate of Microbial Protein Synthesis

Allantoin excretion in the urine was evaluated as a marker for bacterial protein production in lactating and dry cows grazing Sandhills range and meadows. Allantoin excretion declined with season as diet digestibility declined. Bacterial protein predicted from allantoin was significantly related (R2 = .62) to bacterial protein predicted by NRC. Urinary allantoin has potential as a tool to predict bacterial protein production in grazing cattle

Effect of Calving Season and Wintering System on Cow Performance

Four years of data from three different calving seasons and two different cow wintering systems were evaluated utilizing 218 cows/year. Cows calved in spring, summer, or fall and were wintered on native Sandhills range or cornstalks. Calving season affected cow body weight (BW) and body condition score (BCS) throughout the production year; calving in the fall reduced number of calves weaned per cow. No differences were observed between cows wintered on Sandhills range and those wintered on cornstalks

Spitzer, Near-Infrared, and Submillimeter Imaging of the Relatively Sparse Young Cluster, Lynds 988e

We present {\it Spitzer} images of the relatively sparse, low luminosity young cluster L988e, as well as complementary near-infrared (NIR) and submillimeter images of the region. The cluster is asymmetric, with the western region of the cluster embedded within the molecular cloud, and the slightly less dense eastern region to the east of, and on the edge of, the molecular cloud. With these data, as well as with extant H$\alpha$ data of stars primarily found in the eastern region of the cluster, and a molecular $^{13}$CO gas emission map of the entire region, we investigate the distribution of forming young stars with respect to the cloud material, concentrating particularly on the differences and similarities between the exposed and embedded regions of the cluster. We also compare star formation in this region to that in denser, more luminous and more massive clusters already investigated in our comprehensive multi-wavelength study of young clusters within 1 kpc of the Sun.Comment: 21 pages, 6 tables, 13 figures. Full resolution figures at: http://astro.pas.rochester.edu/~tom/Preprints/L988e.pd